Home is where the Bushveld is

You travel past farms with names like Valkevallei and Knoffelfontein; past slate quarries, game farms, cattle farms; all along the course of the Klein-Marico River. There’s a depression in the landscape and in it you find Zeerust. That’s if you approach from the south, as I did in May this year.

The name is a contraction of the original farm name Coetzee-Rust: first owned by a certain Casper Coetzee in 1858, and later by Diederik Coetzee, whose idea it was to establish a town. The farm was divided into erven in 1867 and by 1880 it was officially a town.

And now? Now I’m here.

A naartjie from Mangope’s orchard

I always promise Vermaak Senosi that if I ever pass through Zeerust and I have more than half an hour to spare, I will visit him. Vermaak works as a bush chef for our tour partner Bhejane 4x4 Adventures, and he’s more than a magician in the kitchen. He’s always full of stories and he always welcomes you to the campfire with a big smile.

I drive out of town in the direction of the Skilpadshek border post to Botswana. After a while, I turn right at Lehurutshe. During apartheid, this area was part of the Bophuthatswana homeland. You’ll see almost no settlements indicated on your map, but that’s far from the truth: I drive through sprawling village after sprawling village. The houses have spacious yards and bushveld trees provide shade at crossroads. Cattle roam freely as kids walk to school.

I meet Vermaak at the police station in the village of Motswedi and we drive to his house for tea and rusks. Later, he asks if I want to meet one of the daughters of Lucas Mangope,